Venerable Vulnerability

So many clients and students have been asking my thoughts at this strange and challenging time. I’ll share my current viewpoint and refer to some of my articles over the past year. I hope it offers some comfort and, as our world get momentarily narrower, I hope it also offers a wider view. 

This is clearly a time when our vulnerabilities are being revealed, at the macro level – financial markets, manufacturing, health care, travel, and so on; and at the micro level – worry, anxiety, immunity, instability, income streams, employment norms. The previously covered up vulnerability of our minds, our health, our places of employment, our government is no longer hidden from view. 
 
Could this have been predicted or prevented? Where is this headed? Will we be okay?  These are the questions the mind naturally asks. 

Vulnerability is a teacher, and an call to tend to what matters

 Also written into the stars for this time is the potential for goodness including: 
​

• New Insight and Innovation
• A Bottom, Up Revolution to change the Status Quo
• Wisdom and Transcendance
• Long Overdue Personal, Political, Financial and Environmental Transformation
• A Renovation of What is No Longer Working
  
• A Return to Universal and Individual Dharma

These transformations take time. In the meantime, we can take care of ourselves and our communities, continue putting one step in front of the other in terms of our individual dharma, commit to make some changes in the places where vulnerabiliteis are revealed. 

As you'll see below, what is unfolding now was cast long before. 

This is not an "I told you so", piece. It's a: "Look, this was written. It is part of a larger process and trajectory. This will be tough, but some good will come of it too, and here's what to do right now" article.

While I was able to point to many of the themes that we see playing out now, I did not predict the particular catalyst - a global pandemic and world-wide panic.  It looks bleak now to many, and some are truly experiencing real loss - those vulnerable in particular.  But I want to press that at the macro level, and ultimately for us as individuals, this is a transition.

Saturn: The Slow Walker Takes a Step

January 23, 2020

​Disruptive Change... There are times when we undergo more massive and radical shifts in the way we interact with one another other and our world. This is one of those times... 2020 will mark the next trend of 'out with the old and on with the new'. 

"This change will be slow to arrive and rise from a hidden or undetectable place, and will ultimately disrupt our daily lives in dramatic ways – be in in your personal life or an industrial or cultural level.

"Saturn is associated with outsiders, isolation, discipline, seriousness, hard work, responsibility, practicality, durability consistency realism, conservatism, sadness, rigidity, loneliness, poverty, chronic pain, the elderly, a slow pace, avoidance of the spotlight.

"Saturn can cause a sense of isolation - in realistic or felt terms. Saturn can simultaneously induce a sense of responsibility – for family, marriage and children. 

"There can be heavy, dried out, or isolated feelings associated with the home or relationships.

"We may see an exaggeration of vāta characteristics and symptoms from dryness, anxiety, insomnia, loneliness, over-thinking, worrying, depletion, fatigue, and a drive toward spiritual insight, awareness, and inventiveness, awareness

"General self-care, planning, commitment and a good dose of remembering to have fun is essential at this time. The values and commitments you establish now will leave a long imprint and impact on the years to come. "

Read the Saturn Article

Jupiter in Sag: Uncomfortable Return to Dharma

November 4, 2019

It is a time in which there is great potential for people to wake up, but this wakeup comes with a shakeup... The reality is, that the reassertion of dharma requires 'cleaning house'. 

"We all love the sound of transformation until we realize that true transformation often requires a messy or even ugly renovation - this is the circumstance of this passage of Jupiter through Sagittarius. 

“Facing the battle to re-establish dharma, Arjuna becomes fraught with doubt, recognizing that the process will be one of profound discomfort, loss and destruction. 
 
“It’s the demolition phase of a renovation. It gets messy, exposed and can seem hopeless.
 
“It is a time to do the work of dharma, to commit to rightness and to that which is good for us, over that which is desirable or comfortable. It is also a time to enact patience and the long-view, rather than the pursuit of short-term thrills or wins. The wealth born of the dissolution of ignorance is the true wealth of Jupiter.”

Read the Jupiter Article

Rahu and Ketu: Disrupting the Status Quo

March 18, 2019

“One day we will look back to 2019 and 2020 as being catalyst years.

"Metamorphosis is messy. Expect revolution. This will be a time of quest for fairness and freedom, a time of metamorphosis – which is uncomfortable, scary, often comes with unexpected outcomes, and has an element of mystery and magic.
 
“It will appear that the house is coming down. In fact, the house must come down for a necessary renovation.

"At the financial, political, social, or personal level, Rāhu and Ketu in this position are likely to bring change that is associated with innovation in some shape or form. 
 
“I expect to see the formation of infrastructure, technology or institutions to circumvent / manage disasters. 

"Expect unrest, discomfort, sudden changes, and disruption that leads to renewal.

"Some will seek spiritual growth or deep knowledge, others will crave a change in the household or profession. This particular time could come with a sense of rebellion or resistance. There may be a desire to be different, to innovate, to question of the norms of your life. You may start to feel right side up in an upside down world."

Read the Rahu Ketu Article

Jyotish is as much art and magic as it is a science - for example I wrote, "this bumpy ride is part of life's normal cycle" - clearly what we are experiencing is far outside the realm of "normal"! 

But I think there is potential on reviewing these predictions is to see that we are not in control of all levels of reality. Truly, we only control our own actions and choices, given our circumstances, moment to moment. This is the gift of Vedic Astrology - to learn how to cast your free will given your own life and karma, the influence of others, and the macro-cosmic circumstances over which we have no control. That is as true now, as at any other time. 

All we can do now is continue to be responsible to ourselves, our loved ones, our communities and the planet. 

It will take some time to start to see a resolve in this situation as the impact is still ramping up exponentially, with the number of cases, the panic and hoarding, the financial toll and the global impact of having to pause society. 

As the old saying about lemons and lemonade goes, the sweetness that can be utilized in this sour time is using this time as a retreat for ourselves and to allow the earth to have a little breather from our daily impact. 

A few suggestions. 

• Take care of yourself. You cannot control the world, or even the outcomes of your actions, but you can be deliberate and caring in your choices moment to moment.
• Use technology to connect to others – call your elders, check on your neighbors and friends, share your fears and your hopes with a friend, seek wise counsel. 
• Take a break from the media. Get the information you need to take right action and then leave the rest. 
• Make the most of it. Learn a new skill, read a book, bake bread, enjoy being with yourself {or with your family members if you live with others}. 
• Cultivate trust and trade in your worries for prayers. Most things bounce back stronger from a challenge – be it your immune system, the financial market, or your business. But the mind must be cared for. Take the language of anxiety and turn it into a prayer – it doesn’t matter the type of prayer, the language or the style. You can pray to Shiva, or God, or Mother Nature, or the Divine Goddess, or Yahweh, or the stars.
• Habits, Routines, Habits, Routines, (I mention this near the end of the Saturn article.) The Way Through this is Dharma. 
• Get an expansive view. Take time to look at the sky or the sea or the tops of the trees. Look into the eyes of your loved ones. You are part of the whole. This is true at all times. 

---

Here is a prayer for peace for all beings that is universal, harmonizing and unifying. 
​
sarve bhavantu sukinaḥ / sarve santu nirāmayāḥ 
sarve bhadrāṇi paśhyantu / mā kaśhcid duḥkhabhaāg bhavet 
oṃ śhāntiḥ śhāntiḥ śhāntiḥ
 
May all be happy. May all be free from disease.
May all enjoy prosperity. May none experience sorrow
oṃ peace peace peace

---

Schedule a Reading

Tutoring - Learn Jyotish